Caravan holiday shock for family

A MOTHER saw her summer holiday turn into a "nightmare" when she arrived at the caravan she had booked to find it already occupied.

Naomi Longcroft says the owner Norman Farley had double booked the caravan, in Hemsby, Norfolk, and refused to give her a refund.

Mr Farley denies making a mistake, and said the family turned up for their holiday a week late.

Ms Longcroft, of Blake Close, Royston, said: "It was a real nightmare. When we got to the caravan we thought we'd got the wrong place because there were people already in there.

"So we were driving around for ages, but soon realised it was our caravan. When we called Mr Farley to find out what was going on he was just fobbing us off, saying we'd come a week too late, but why would I have got the date of my holiday wrong?

"We spoke to the caretaker on the site, and he said there was a family in the caravan last week as well, so even if we had come a week earlier there would have been nowhere for us to stay."

Ms Longcroft, who had booked the holiday for herself, her partially sighted six-year-old son, Joshua, and her mum, managed to find alternative accommodation thanks to the kindness of a local woman.

She said: "A lady living on the site heard about my situation, and offered us one of her caravans for �150, which was very kind. Otherwise I would have had to have told my six-year-old that the holiday he was looking forward to had been cancelled."

Mr Farley said: "They were meant to arrive on August 8, and I have the paperwork to prove it. If there had been a fault on my part I would have offered a full refund.

"I was not aware that there were people in the caravan the week before, and if I had known I would have assumed it was them [the Longcrofts], as I had given them the entry code on August 4 ahead of their arrival that weekend.